A ministry of Home Life Ministries

Resourceful Household Tips

To keep drains free flowing and odors down, pour one cup baking soda and one cup vinegar down drains once or twice a month.

Use old newspapers for cleaning glass and windows, they don’t streak or leave lint like paper towels do.

Make your own glass cleaner with water and ammonia.

Keep receipts, proof of purchase and UPCs off items that might have rebates in the future. The rebates and special offers can be found in newspapers, on the product, at store counters and various other sources.

To make your own brown sugar at about half the cost per pound of store-bought, add 1 – 2T of dark molasses to 1 cup of white sugar and mix thoroughly. (Use blackstrap molasses, and 1T per cup makes a nice dark brown sugar.)

Make your own popsicles. You don’t need to buy the expensive store brand, when they are so easy to make at home. Use molds and fill them up with fruit juices, jello, yogurt, jelly, leftover juice from jars of fruit and even some of the fruit chopped up in it. Try making them fun with food coloring, coconut, sprinkles. Make them multi-colored by filling them half full, freezing for a little bit, them add another color.

Keep a small list of what you pay for items that you buy a lot. Then, when you’re at another grocery store, you’ll know if their special is really a special.

While waiting for hot water from your sink to get hot, place a milk jug under the faucet to collect water. Use this water to water plants, pets, etc. You’ll be surprised with how much water you’ve collected.

Almost all detergents (shampoo, dish soap, dishwashing detergent, etc.) recommend to use to much – use half what is recommended and increase a little till you get it right.

To shine silver do not buy the expensive cleaners. Simply line a large cake pan with aluminium foil. (Make sure that the foil completely covers all areas. add warm water to cover the item and several tablespoons of baking soda. Add the pieces of silver and wait 5-10 minutes. The grime will be gone and at a fraction of the cost of commercial cleaners. Not to mention no elbow grease!!!

One easy way to cut on cooking costs and time is to take one week and triple the amount of food needed for each meal. You then eat one of the meals and freeze the remainder for meals that are quick and easy to prepare in the weeks to come.

Reduce the amount of interest you pay on your mortgage payments by simply adding additional principle $$$$’s to the payments you make each month. It doesn’t have to be every month, it could be once a year if you receive year end bonuses. No tricks, no complicated formula. All you need to do is check your mortgage document to see if there is a pre-payment penalty clause,(usually paragraph 17), and if not, you are allowed to make additional payments in any amounts at any time over the term of the mortgage. For example; a $100,000.00 @ 8.5% for 30 years would give a borrower a monthly principle and interest payment of $763.51. If that borrower repaid the note over 30 years, never missing a payment he would have paid back over $274,800’s! However, by adding $63.63 dollars a month to the payment and telling the bank to reduce the principle by that amount every month, the borrower would pay back the loan in 22.5 years, costing them just over $223,300 over the term of the loan! That’s a whopping savings of over $51,500.00!